The stories are subtle conveyances of the Baby Boomer generation, specifically King's view that this generation (to which he self-consciously belongs) failed to live up to their promise and ideals. Significantly, the opening epigraph of the collection is the Peter Fonda line from the end of Easy Rider: "We blew it." All of the stories are about Baby Boomers, and in all of them, the members of that generation fail profoundly, or are paying the costs of some profound failure on their part. The closing "Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling" is clearly meant as a eulogy for the promise of the Baby Boom generation, with the hint of redemption.